Animorphs: The Addition
by Cyblade Silver
Summary: Five ordinary kids take a shortcut through an abandoned construction site, gaining power and finding themselves caught up in a war beyond anything they'd imagined; that's the usual story. However, when a sixth joins them on that fateful night, their group isn't the only thing to expand...
1. The Invasion (1)

_Disclaimer: Animorphs belongs to Scholastic books, Power Rangers (yes, really) belongs to Saban Brands and Hasbro. The PR comic belongs to Boom! Studios. This is going to be less of a_ story _than my other works, and more an interconnected series of one-shots; some longer than others, of course._

 **Animorphs: The Addition**

Tommy didn't really know what had compelled him, that first night, to tag after the five younger kids as they made their way toward that abandoned construction site. Maybe it'd just been because of the sense of kinship he felt with that kid Tobias, since both of them hadn't seemed to be able to make friends easily, or else just because not one of those kids making their way into that maze of broken concrete and old, rusting construction equipment seemed to be even the same age as he was.

It just hadn't felt right, letting a bunch of kids – all of them clearly younger than he was – go into a place that dangerous on their own.

And so Tommy had hurried, quickly catching up to the five of them with his longer stride.

"Hey," he called, falling into step at the trailing edge of their group, next to the smaller boy whose hair looked almost like his; really, it was the same basic length and everything. "What's a bunch of kids your age doing out in a place like _this_?"

He'd thought it was kind of uncanny, the resemblance between him and that other kid, back before Elfangor's ship had crash-landed in front of them all, redefining everything he thought he knew about the world.

"Who are _you_ calling a bunch of kids?" demanded the girl near the front of the group; the one who was nearly as tall as he was, which had been a pretty funny thought, given how young she looked.

"I have three years on any of you," he informed her, knowing that it was probably only true in the broadest sense, but wanting to make his point all the same. "I'm allowed to call you kids, you kids."

The laughter of the short kid walking next to him does a lot to defuse the tension that Tommy can almost _see_ building between him and the blonde girl at the forefront of the group, and that kind of thing seems to be the catalyst for a round of introductions. Things go about as usual for this kind of situation, up to the point when it came time for Tommy to introduce himself.

"What?" he asked, in response to Jake's laugh; the one that sounded like it'd taken nearly everything the younger boy had to suppress and then some.

"Sorry," the younger boy said, regaining his composure about as fast as Tommy remembered himself doing. "It's just, my older brother's name is Tom."

Tommy found _himself_ laughing, returning Jake's grin with one of his own. "You're right, that _is_ pretty funny."

He never _did_ find out just why the five of them had gone into the construction site that night, but as he ran from the Yeerk-enslaved humans and aliens hunting him down, furious tears streaking his face and Elfangor's agonized cries echoing in his mind, Tommy had already resolved himself on what he was going to do. No matter what any of those younger kids chose to do for themselves, _he_ was going to make sure that no one else suffered as a slave to those evil aliens. No matter _what_ happened to him.


	2. The Invasion (2)

Finding out that Cassie's parents owned and operated a clinic that took care of sick or injured wild animals hadn't come as so much of a shock to him, once he'd had a chance to think about things. Really, it made a lot of sense that a kind, compassionate, understanding person like Cassie had been raised by those same kind of people. Looking around at all of the younger kids gathered around him in the barn where so many animals had been put up while they recovered from the injuries that had brought them to the attention of Cassie's parents in the first place, Tommy turned his attention back to the discussion that seemed poised on the edge of turning into an argument.

All of them were making good points, even Marco, whose reasons for not wanting to involve himself in what might all too easily prove to be a long, protracted battle against the Yeerks and whatever forces they had brought to Earth when they'd decided they wanted to take it over. He was thinking about his father, and what the man's reaction would have been if something happened to him. Tommy hadn't known that Marco shared so many of his own circumstances; the same way Tobias seemed to share more than a few.

He wonders, even as he and Tobias firmly state their own resolve to continue the fight against the Yeerks even if they were forced to do it on their own, what it would have been like to be forced into the role of caretaker for a man who seemed to have given up on life completely; it couldn't have been easy for him, and Tommy makes sure to let the younger boy know that if he needs any help dealing with things, Tommy would be there for him. Even through the ensuing sarcasm, he can tell that Marco's grateful for the consideration.

After their encounter with the Yeerk-enslaved police officer – who'd expressed a particular interest in him, citing his well-known background as a martial artist and trying to use that to entice him into joining up with some kind of group called the Sharing – Marco had been quick to pounce on the opportunity, telling all of them once again to just forget about what was going on, forget about what they had learned, and focus their attention on keeping their families away from everything that was going on.

Those of them who _had_ families to speak of, anyway.

In the end, he and Tobias acquire a pair of bird morphs – a bald eagle and a red-tailed hawk, respectively – and leave to run surveillance; even if it ended up being just the two of them, Tommy was determined to do everything he could to make sure that no one else was forced to suffer as a slave of the Yeerks.


	3. The Invasion (3)

When he and Tobias found themselves called back to the barn later, Tommy found both Jake _and_ Marco far more subdued than he'd ever seen them before. And, while he might not have known the kids for as long as the rest of them – all except for Tobias; another thread that seemed to bind the pair of them together, closer than he'd ever been to anyone else – Tommy still found himself all but compelled to offer his own assurances once Jake revealed that his own older brother, the kid who was almost Tommy's namesake, had been taken as a slave by the Yeerks.

The rest of them all find the resolve to fight then, if only until they manage to free Jake's older brother from the Yeerks, and even though Tommy understands all of their reasons for being so reluctant – even if they seem to be mostly Marco's – he still finds himself uncertain at the prospect of going into battle with only Tobias as backup. This wasn't anything like the tournaments he'd found himself competing in when he'd wanted extra spending money, or else when he'd just needed to get out of the house and away from his parents' determined indifference.

The both of them were good enough people, at least as far as keeping him fed and clothed and everything went, but neither of them had really seemed to take much of an interest in him beyond that.

Still, even if it _was_ just until they managed to free Jake's older brother from the Yeerks, it would be good to have them beside him.


	4. The Invasion (4)

Their trip to The Gardens, somewhere that Tommy had often found himself wanting to go, and then wondering if it was even worth the time to ask his parents if they might want to come. They probably wouldn't have thought much of the amusement park that made up half of it, but there was a chance that they might've enjoyed the zoo that made up the other half. Said zoo was their current destination, nearly all of them having agreed on the point that – morphing being their only means of fighting against the Yeerks and all of their forces – they needed to have better animal forms than just Jake's dog, his and Tobias' respective eagle and hawk, and Rachel and Cassie's horse.

Oddly enough, _Tobias_ had been the only one who hadn't been in favor of the idea, stating that he was happy with just the hawk that he'd acquired when he and Tommy had gone out to search for any clues as to where the Yeerks' main center of operations – what Tobias had said was called a Yeerk Pool – might have been. The rest of their group, Tommy included, managed to talk him around, but even so he didn't seem particularly enthusiastic about the idea. Tommy wondered for a moment why that was, but then decided that it probably wasn't that important.

Tobias was with them now, and that was really all that mattered.

Chuckling as Marco declared their group the Animorphs – idiot teenagers with a death wish, as he'd gone on to elaborate – Tommy shook his head as he fell into step with the rest of their group. Whatever else happened, he was glad to have them on his side. For however long that was going to be.


	5. The Invasion (5)

After the six of them had managed to escape from the Gardens' security, something that Tommy had never expected to have to do before, he, Rachel, Cassie, and Tobias decided that they would stay in a group for as long as they could manage. He'd been the one to suggest it, knowing that there was at least _some_ safety in numbers for them, even if it wasn't as much as it would have been if their plans didn't hinge on getting into and out of the habitats of the kind of dangerous animals that ordinary people would have probably wanted to have as little to do with as possible.

The fact remained that none of them could truly claim to be _ordinary_ anymore.

Once he'd made his own selection – touching the lion in order to sample its DNA being both one of the most exhilarating _and_ one of the more nerve-wracking experiences of his life up to that point – Tommy followed along with Rachel, Cassie, and Tobias as the former acquired an African elephant, and the latter two tried to abstain from making their own selections. As it turned out, Cassie had had an injured wolf being treated in her parents' clinic, and so could have easily have been said to be covered as far as fighting against the Yeerks was concerned. It was Tobias that Tommy found himself honestly worried about.

He didn't really know what the younger boy's reasons ultimately were for deciding not to acquire a new animal morph that could fight better than a hawk could; they were going to need all six of them ready for action if they were going to have any chance of defeating the Yeerks and their forces.

Making up his mind to speak to Cassie, once the four of them had managed to find Jake and Marco again, Tommy turned his attention back to searching. His and Rachel's comparative height helped the pair of them to find Jake and Marco, who had apparently been hiding from the security that they hadn't been able to lose nearly as well as the group that Tommy had found himself a part of had done. Though a large part of their nervousness seemed to have also come from the fact that their attempts to acquire a combat morph for Jake seemed to have gone more wrong than any of them had ever expected. Rachel didn't seem to be putting much stock in their story, but Tommy found himself wishing that he could have found a way to keep them all together.

It wouldn't have been easy, considering everything that had been going on at the time, but he couldn't help thinking that things would have been better that way.


	6. The Invasion (6)

After making his way back to his house so that he could let his parents know he was doing all right, not that that kind of news really seemed to phase them one way or the other, Tommy made his way up to his room. Slipping out the window after putting the clothes that he wasn't going to be needing up for the night, Tommy quickly morphed back into the eagle he'd started thinking of as his own, and made his way to Cassie's house as quickly as his new wings would carry him. Looking around as he flew, Tommy found himself amazed all over again at the clarity of the eagle's vision.

Cassie had talked about things like that, back when he and the other Animorphs – it was getting easier to think of the six of them as a group now that they had a name, but Tommy couldn't help wondering just what he and Tobias would end up having to do, once Jake and the others had rescued Jake's brother and could move on with their lives – had been acquiring new, stronger animal forms to use in their battle against the Yeerks and their forces. She'd talked about the way that, even though it _had_ been alien technology that had allowed the six of them to actually _change_ forms, the ancient people who'd lived in the Americas before them had also called upon the spirits of various animals to protect them.

Not to protect them from an alien invasion, of course, but to help them find the strength and courage to face whatever it was that they had needed to face.

None of the others had really been interested, and Marco in particular had been a bit more sarcastic than usual, but Tommy had found himself listening for more than just the sake of hearing about what the people who had lived here before believed. It was the _way_ Cassie had told the story that let him know that she thought a lot about things, and a lot about people, too. She was kind, compassionate, generous, and understanding; Tommy made up his mind right then and there that, even if she chose _not_ to fight against the Yeerks after they'd rescued Jake's brother, he'd look out for her as best as he could.

Even though it was starting to seem like Marco was the only one who actually _wanted_ to walk away from all that they were gearing up to fight.

Looking down again, as he came within sight of the barn where he and the other Animorphs had met not so long ago, Tommy felt a chill run the length of his morphed spine as he caught a glimpse of a police car making its way steadily up the road to Cassie's house. He didn't know if it was that same cop that he and the other Animorphs had encountered back when they'd still been re-centering themselves after everything that had happened at the construction site, but in any case he knew it was better to be safe than sorry.

Especially given what they were all facing.

(Cassie! Cassie, if you can hear me, there's a police car coming up to your house,) he said, even as he circled over that same house, keeping an eye on the progress of the car.

(Tommy?)

He breathed out as close as he could get to a sigh of relief in his current shape; at least whoever was coming wouldn't be able to find Cassie in her current form. (Where are you?) he asked. (You're not still in your house right now, right?)

(I'm a horse,) she answered quickly. (Here, I'll toss my head so you can tell which one.)

Once he was able to get a bead on just where Cassie actually _was_ , he thanked her for the information, even as he continued to keep an eye out for what that cop was doing. A look in through the window told him that it _was_ the same exact cop who'd come out to Cassie's house the first time, asking about things that had made it more than obvious to anyone paying attention that he was one of the Yeerk-enslaved humans who they were going to have to watch out for.

(He's getting really close to your house, Cassie,) Tommy informed her, deciding then and there that he'd go down there and help her out. (I'll be there in just a second.)

Folding his wings and falling from the sky, Tommy felt that same, ecstatic rush that he'd felt every single time he'd done that same kind of thing; even just landing in the tree outside his bedroom window when he needed to get back home was more exciting than it had ever really been when he was human. Opening his wings again, catching the air under them before he could get too close to the ground, Tommy concentrated on his human body as he swept in low over the long grass. His legs shot out under him, and he crouched to lessen the impact as he fell from the sky with wings that were too small to support what he was becoming.

Once he'd made it back into his human form, Tommy noticed the frantic expression on Cassie's face as she ran over to him, a coat draped over her left arm and a pair of boots in that same hand. She gave them to him quickly, urging him to put them on before the cop that had already been approaching the pair of them made it close enough to see more than the vague outlines of their respective silhouettes.


	7. The Invasion (7)

Waking up with a dull ache in the back of his head, and a _sharp_ ache in his left knee, it took him only a few seconds to recall what had happened to him and Cassie when the pair of them had ended up being forced to confront that Yeerk-enslaved cop that had come out to harass her at home. He'd tried to settle the matter as diplomatically as he could, attempting to get both himself and Cassie away from the man without raising the Yeerk's suspicions. Still, given the fact that he'd been shot in the left knee and then clearly knocked unconscious, Tommy knew that he'd failed.

Now, all that remained was for the pair of them to get through this as well as they could.

Glaring at the cop, as the Yeerk-enslaved man forced him and Cassie out of the car – kicking Tommy in his wounded leg when the pair of them apparently didn't move quickly enough for him – he wrapped his left arm around Cassie as the pair of them were steadily forced in the direction of the _school_ , of all places. He hadn't even suspected that something like this could have happened in a place he'd thought was so normal, or at least far enough removed from everything else that was going on that he didn't have to worry about those kinds of things.

(Tommy; don't freak out, or try not to react at all, if you can, but Jake wants you to know that the rest of us are here. We're going to be coming for you guys, so don't worry.)

Straightening up slightly, Tommy gave Cassie a light squeeze around her shoulders; even if she _didn't_ know what it was for, and he wondered if Tobias _had_ just contacted him for some reason or other, she would at least know that things were going a _bit_ better.


	8. The Invasion (8)

Shuddering as the Yeerk-enslaved man continued shoving him, driving him and Cassie steadily deeper into what was clearly the Yeerks' main base of operations, Tommy found himself passing by a row of _cages_ – each and every one of them seeming to hold at least ten people, all of them crammed in tighter than he'd seen even the animals in the shelters that he'd been to when he'd been thinking of getting a pet – finding himself all the more furious at what he was seeing. It was a helpless sort of fury, at first, then tempered by the knowledge that Jake and the others were going to be there with them soon.

He and Cassie wouldn't be alone for much longer.


	9. The Invasion (9)

Things had happened quickly, once Tobias had come shooting down from high in the air and tearing his way across the face of the pair of Hork-Bajir that had been herding both him and Cassie out to the end of the pier, distracting the pair of them and letting Tommy punch the enslaved police officer who'd handed them off to the enslaved aliens. They'd nearly been at the end of the pier when that had happened; one of the two that had been built out over the pool that all of the Yeerks had been swimming around in. The worst of the two, as far as he was concerned; after going through the unloading of the alien slug, someone could at least be free while they were waiting in the cage. After the slug had gone in…

Steeling himself, even as he and Cassie completed their morphs – him into the lion that he'd found when he and the other Animorphs had been making their way through The Gardens for just that kind of thing, and Cassie into the horse that he remembered seeing her as when he'd come to her barn to warn her that she was in danger – Tommy leaped into the fray beside her. Roaring at the Hork-Bajir that had begun closing in on the pair of them, once they'd managed to break away from the crowd of people who they'd used for cover while morphing, Tommy looked over at Cassie as she called out to him.

(Could you not do that again? You really scared the horse.)

(Sorry about that,) he said, feeling a little sheepish for having to be reminded that the minds of the animals they morphed were just as much a part of them as their bodies.

Since he wasn't about to leave Cassie alone to face the army of alien slaves trying to either capture or kill them, Tommy reined in his lion instincts as best he could.

(Cassie! Tommy! Keep heading for the stairs!)

(Right, Jake!) he called back, keeping abreast of Cassie as the pair of them charged the mass of Yeerk-enslaved humans and aliens that were still moving to overtake them.

They'd clearly been getting organized somehow, even as he and the other Animorphs had fought their way through them, because a line of Yeerk-enslaved Hork-Bajir and Taxxons – all of them with those same energy weapons in their hands that he'd only seen a few times before – was forming up in front of them even as he, Cassie, and Jake charged forward.

(Up and over!)

He and Cassie both echo Jake's words back at him, and together the three of them leaped over the heads of the Yeerk-enslaved humans, Hork-Bajir, and Taxxons in their way. That, of course, was when Visser Three appeared again. Visser Three, whose Andalite form almost seemed small and comparatively harmless next to all of the other Yeerk-enslaved aliens they were fighting. Or, at least he would have, if there hadn't been something about him that made him stand out from them.

Tommy wouldn't have known how to describe it if someone had asked, but something felt _wrong_ about Visser Three.

(This Taxxon fool says that you are wild animals,) Visser Three said, as one of the Yeerk-enslaved aliens came over to talk with him in their strange, snakelike language. (He wants to know if he and his brothers can eat you.) The Visser's cold, inhumane laughter – even silent as it was – sent a shudder down Tommy's spine. (But I know that you are _not_ animals. I _know_ who and what you are. So; not all of you Andalites died when I burned your ship. I commend you for getting this far, but it will accomplish nothing. Because now, my brave Andalite warriors, it is time. Time to die.)

Even in his lion body, Tommy still found himself shuddering as Visser Three chuckled.

(I acquired this body on the fourth moon of the second planet of a dying star. Like it?)


	10. The Invasion (10)

Fire. Visser Three's new, horrible alien morph could breathe _fire_! Huge, spinning balls of flame, shot from each of the long-necked heads – eight of them in all; to match the eight arms, and eight _legs_ – that the Visser's alien monster morph possessed.

(We have to get out of here!) he shouted, just in time for Marco to make the same declaration, or maybe Marco had spoken first.

Frazzled as he was, Tommy wouldn't have really been able to tell anyone who had the presence of mind to ask.

(Right!) Jake called back. (Everyone, run! Head for the stairs! Rachel, you and Tommy clear a path!)

The both of them called back to him, acknowledging what he'd said, and then turned and made their way toward the stairs. But, just when they'd started closing in on the base of the stairs, more Taxxons than Tommy had seen before came swarming in on them. Gathering himself for a leap, as he saw Jake's brother – the boy who was almost his namesake – being circled by a pair of Taxxons that were clearly determined to drag him back to the cages where all of the people they _hadn't_ been able to save were still being held, Tommy came down on the one nearest to him.

Flattening the enslaved alien underneath the full weight of his lion body, Tommy nudged Jake's brother firmly in the direction of the stairs, then turned to slash open the single remaining Taxxon before it could attack him again. Once he'd managed to make it back to Jake and the others, all of them pressing in close around Jake's brother so that they would be able to protect him even while they were all going up the stairs, Tommy looked over at Rachel as their group made it to the wide base of the towering stairs.

(Morph back!) Jake shouted, before anyone else could say anything.

Shuddering slightly as Rachel began demorphing, Tommy turned his attention back to what was going on all around them. Visser Three was still determinedly raining fire down all around them, and the last two Hork-Bajir they'd managed to free from the cages fell, flames from the flying fireballs eating them alive.

Screaming as a fireball slammed into _his_ back from behind, feeling almost as though he'd been cut in half with a burning sword, Tommy heard Jake shouting for him to demorph, as well.

Concentrating on his human form, even as he felt Marco picking him up and carrying him when he failed to move very far on his own, Tommy blocked out everything else that was going on around him, wanting to be out of his badly-charred lion body as soon as possible. In the meantime, Tommy trusted that his friends and fellow Animorphs would be able to protect him.


	11. The Invasion (11)

In the end, he learned that there had only been _one_ other person to make it up and out of the Yeerk Pool, only the lady who'd been riding on Cassie's back when the six of them had escaped from the Yeerks' underground stronghold; Jake's brother had turned to confront Visser Three – even though the Yeerks' leader had still been in that fire-breathing alien monster form of his – running at him faster than any of them could react.

At least, those of them who'd been in a _position_ to act, anyway.

Flopping back down on his bed, still feeling more than a little terrified after everything that he and his fellow Animorphs had gone through, both before and after they'd made their escape from the Yeerk's underground stronghold, Tommy closed his eyes. He didn't know just when or where he and his fellow Animorphs were going to have to go next, but he made a promise to himself that he'd be prepared for it.

It was all he really _could_ do.


	12. The Visitor (1)

After finding out that Tobias had been trapped in the hawk morph he'd been using, Tommy had found himself almost wishing that he'd stayed with the rest of the Animorphs instead of heading home the way he'd done as soon as he'd managed to regain the focus he'd needed to morph. Once the six of them had all been called together to plan what they were going to do next – with him in a cat morph that Cassie had found for him, since he and Jake had both agreed that it would be too suspicious if he started hanging out with the rest of the Animorphs when their social circles had never really overlapped in the past – Tommy sighed, feeling his tail lash sharply in annoyance.

(Look, I don't think it was the best idea for Rachel to get herself into that situation either, but it sounds to me like she was really worried about her friend. I think we all know what _that_ feels like, right?)

"Point taken," Jake said, nodding at him as Rachel reached down to scratch behind his ears.

Tommy found himself purring almost against his will, and he heard Cassie chuckle softly. Jake got them all back on track before Marco could say anything sarcastic, of course.

"I think that the main thing we have to take away from this is that we can't count on Melissa being our way to get close to Chapman," Jake said, taking up the main thread of their conversation again. "Not if she's a Controller herself, and not if she's going to keep being weird to Rachel."

"I guess we'll just have to find another way," Rachel said, sounding more than a little eager; he could understand the feeling, since _he_ wouldn't have been particularly in favor of using any of his friends in a bid to gain information on their mutual enemies. If he'd had any to speak of before the Animorphs, at least. "I mean, we already know where Chapman's office is; we know where his house is. Maybe we could just morph into some small animals and hide out there for awhile."

As all of them discussed what they were actually going to _do_ next, eventually settling on the idea of morphing into the cat that Rachel's friend had gotten for a previous birthday, Tommy found himself hoping that nothing would go wrong on this next mission. Or, at least not as wrong as what had happened when they'd ended up in a fight with Visser Three. He hoped that nothing would go _that_ wrong ever again.

Once the meeting had concluded, with the six of them making plans to meet up outside the Chapman house tomorrow, Tommy quickly jumped out the window, demorphing and then quickly morphing into the bald eagle that he and Rachel both used to fly when they needed to.


	13. The Visitor (2)

The next night, just the way they'd planned, Tommy and his fellow Animorphs all met up outside the Chapman house. Just behind a hedge that bordered the house's front lawn, in fact. He and Rachel, being the tallest in the group, were practically down on their respective stomachs so they could stay out of sight of anyone who might be looking their way.

"Look, a kitty door!" Jake exclaimed, though he kept his voice low enough that no one would be able to hear him, or at least Tommy hoped they wouldn't.

"Where?" Marco asked, looking around in clear confusion.

"See the lines of light?" Jake pointed out. "At the bottom of the regular door?"

"Oh, yeah," Marco said, sighing softly. "I wish the moon were out; I can't see a thing."

"That wouldn't be very good for us," he said, looking briefly up at the sky before turning his attention back to his fellow Animorphs.

"Yeah, I guess," Marco said, folding his arms and side-eyeing the house they were all crouched in front of. "Let me just ask you this, though: why did it have to be Chapman? I was afraid of him even _before_ we found out he was a Controller."

"You're still not upset over that detention he gave you, are you?" Rachel asked, a look on her face that seemed to suggest that she was teasing him. "Look, if you're going to listen to your CD player in math class with an earphone hidden in your hair, you have to remember not to start singing along."

It was all he could do, after hearing that, not to burst out laughing. "You actually _tried_ that?"

"We're not here for that," Jake said, though he sounded like he found the whole thing funny, too.

"I still say that Chapman would have never given me a whole _week's_ detention if he was fully human," Marco said, a firmly unimpressed look on his face.

"I have a question: how are we going to get Melissa's cat to come outside?" Cassie asked, bringing their attention back to what they were really here for.

"Good question," Rachel said.

"Yeah, we should probably try to keep from having to stay here for too long," he said, looking around to make sure that no one was getting close enough to see them.

Once they'd managed to find the cat they were looking for – Tommy had to remind himself more than a few times not to laugh outright at the name Fluffer McKitty – Rachel and Cassie had quickly volunteered to catch the cat they needed and bring him back to the carrier. Of course, nothing really went the way they wanted it to go; it was starting to become a pattern, really.

And, soon enough, Rachel had asked Tobias to bring her a mouse, so she could lure the cat down from the tree he'd climbed up when Rachel had tried to catch him.

"Are you sure you're going to be okay doing this?" he asked, as Rachel caught the mouse that Tobias had dropped down to her.

"Don't worry so much," she said, smirking at him in a way that he couldn't help but think looked more than a bit cocky. "I can handle this."

Stepping back slightly, knowing that Rachel probably wouldn't listen to him if he tried to talk her out of it, Tommy kept watching. Even if he _couldn't_ talk her out of doing something so dangerous, he could at least be there for her while she was doing it. So, when she started morphing into the shrew – that's what Cassie had said it was, but he hadn't gotten a close enough look at the tiny thing to tell – he moved in closer. And, when she'd gotten small enough to fit in his hand, he quickly picked her up.

She'd be a lot less likely to panic if someone she knew was holding her, or at least that was the basic idea.

"Rachel?" he called, as his friend finished the last of her morphing and sat in his hands, little nose and ears twitching for a moment, before she started scrabbling in his hand as if she was actually _scared_ of him.

When she tried to run off of the edge of his right hand, though, Tommy quickly closed his left around it, holding on even as he felt her sharp teeth digging into the meat of that hand between his thumb and pointer-finger. Gritting his teeth as Rachel's sharp teeth tore through his hand.

"Tommy, are you- Geez, you're bleeding!" Cassie exclaimed, grabbing his hands as he kept holding on to Rachel's tiny shrew body.

"Yeah," he said, forcing the words out from between his teeth.

He could definitely feel the blood, running down his wrist and dripping from his elbow as he continued to hold onto Rachel's tiny shrew body as best as he could in spite of that and the pain he was currently feeling. Once Rachel had managed to get a hold on herself again, she went off to lure her friend's cat down from the tree he was in.

He still couldn't help wanting to go with her, when she inevitably made her way into the Chapman house…


	14. The Visitor (3)

After they had all managed to find the time to make their way into the Chapman house, or at least for _Rachel_ to do that – Tommy still found himself wishing he could go along with her; all of the Animorphs were about three years younger than him, so he figured it was only natural that he wanted to protect them, even if it _wasn't_ always possible – Tommy sighed.

"Are you ready?" Jake asked, and Tommy snapped his attention back to where Rachel was standing.

"Are you sure about this?" Tommy asked, after Rachel had given a short, sharp nod to Jake. "I don't think anyone would mind if you wanted to call this off."

"The sooner the better," Rachel said, the look on her face telling him that she wouldn't back down for anything. "We all know something is wrong in that house, and Melissa is still my friend. Maybe I can find some way to help her."

"Your job is not to help Melissa Chapman," Marco said, sounding about as sarcastic and impatient as Tommy had ever heard the kid sound. "You're supposed to be spying on Chapman. You're supposed to be finding some way for us to get at the Yeerks, so we can all turn into wild animals and get ourselves killed."

"That's not exactly what we're trying to do, Marco," he said, turning a slight glare on his friend and fellow Animorph; really, there were times that Marco's cynicism and pessimism could be really annoying.

"I know what we're trying to do, Marco," Rachel said, nearly before he'd finished speaking, himself.

"Okay, well take care of yourself," Marco said, nodding. "That _is_ an assistant principal you're dealing with. He finds out you've turned into a cat and gone sneaking around his house, that'll be after-school detention for like a _year_."

Laughing along with his fellow Animorphs, Tommy found himself relaxing, just slightly though; he was still worried about Rachel and what she might end up facing when she was in that house. He couldn't forget the danger she was going to be facing, or how much he wanted to be the one going in her place. Still, Melissa was _her_ friend, and he had to respect what Rachel wanted to do.

He'd want the same in return, if it'd been one of _his_ friends in this kind of situation; at least the hypothetical ones _outside_ of the Animorphs.

Once Rachel had decided that she was ready, she signaled for Tobias to land in a nearby tree; he told her where the cat she was going to be impersonating – was that even the right word for it? – was out, seemingly for the night, and Rachel seemed to finish the last of her mental preparations at that moment. As Rachel's face took on a look of concentration, the same kind that he'd seen on every one of his fellow Animorphs when they started morphing, Tommy tried to bury his wish to go with her.

Or in her place, considering how much she wanted to handle this task herself.

"Oh, that is so cool!" Cassie exclaimed, grinning as the black and white fur of a tuxedo-patterned cat grew in while Rachel was still mostly human. "That is way cool. You look _great_!"

"It's kind of weird, but also kind of pretty," Marco said, looking like he didn't quite know what to make of the form Rachel was currently in, even as she continued morphing into her friend's cat. "I'm thinking you could do commercials for cat food. Sing a little song, maybe dance a bit."

Tommy found himself laughing, before Marco could say the rest of what he was thinking. "That's not really what we're here for, Marco."

Once Rachel had finished morphing at last, she actually seemed _happy_ to be a cat, somehow. It reminded him a lot of the lion he'd morphed into, back when he and the other Animorphs had gone down into the Yeerks' underground strong hold in an effort to rescue anyone they could. Still, that thought brought up the memory of just what had happened when they'd tried _that_.

What he hoped would never happen again.

Watching with the rest of the Animorphs as Rachel made her way into the Chapman house, Tommy folded his arms and tried to force himself to relax; tried not to think about what Rachel would be facing, when she went down into that place. Tried not to think about how young she really was, and how much he wished he could go in her place.


	15. The Visitor (4)

After Rachel had come back out of the Chapman house, Tommy couldn't help the thought that she was hiding something. Once she'd demorphed into her human form, he noticed that there was a new kind of determination in her eyes.

"You only have ten minutes to spare, Rachel," Jake said, a stern look on his face as he stared down Rachel where she was standing. "I hope it was worth scaring us all half to death; did you at least discover something _useful_?"

"Yes, I discovered _plenty_ ," Rachel said, sounding almost like she was trying as hard as she could not to bite off the ends of her words as she spoke them. "I discovered that Chapman has a way to communicate directly with Visser Three. I discovered that Visser Three is pretty hot to catch us, although he still thinks we're Andalites. And I _decided_ something, too."

"What's that, Rachel?" he asked, wanting to know just what had brought out this new resolve that he could see in her eyes.

"I've decided that I don't care what it takes, or how many risks I have to run," Rachel said, the look of resolve on her face deepening and growing stronger as she spoke. "I don't care _what_ happens to me; I hate these Yeerks. I hate them. I hate them, and I _will_ find a way to stop them."

"Yeah, I get that," he said, stepping over to clap her right shoulder.

The six of them went their separate ways after that, but Tommy made a mental note to look in on Rachel whenever he could. He knew that she'd found her resolve after going into the Chapman house to find out what the man was doing for Visser Three and the Yeerk forces in general, but it was starting to seem like she was forgetting how much danger they were all in. Besides that, he _was_ the oldest Animorph, so it was only natural that he should protect the rest of them.


	16. The Visitor (5)

Being called out to the church tower where the rest of his fellow Animorphs had landed while they'd been playing around with their bird morphs, Tommy found himself finding out just _why_ they'd all been so eager to _do_ something like that. Flying actually _was_ the most exciting thing he'd ever done; nothing really compared, not any of his martial arts tournaments, not the sparring he'd done with his fellow martial artists, and not anything else he'd done in his life.

Once the church tower came into view, Tommy caught sight of his fellow Animorphs landing, then demorphing once they'd made it down to the ground. Rachel was just beginning her own demorphing, as Tommy folded his wings and dropped to the ground to start his own.

"You know what we need?" Marco asked, looking around at the six of them at their various stages of transformation. "We need to find a way to coordinate these morphing outfits. I mean, Cassie's wearing green patterned leggings and a purple stretch top, and Jake's got on those awful bike shorts, Tommy's wearing black and green the way he always seems to be, and Rachel is stylish, as always, in her black tights. Put it all together, and we look pretty scruffy."

"What do you want?" Jake asked, seeming about as impatient as Tommy was starting to feel with Marco and his babbling. "You want us all to dress up in blue with a big number four on our chests? Become the Fantastic Four?"

"No; how do you think that would even work?" Marco retorted, folding his arms as he gave Jake a weird sort of superior look. "There are _five_ of us, aside from Tobias. No, what I was thinking was an X-Men sort of thing; it's not about being identical, it's about having some _style_. Right now if anyone saw us, they wouldn't think 'oh, cool, superheroes,' they'd think 'man, those people do not know how to _dress_ '."

"Marco, I think it's time to get over this fantasy of yours," Rachel said, glaring plainly at Marco where he was standing. "We are not superheroes, and this is _not_ a comic book."

"Yes, but I really, really _want_ it to be a comic book," Marco admitted, sounding like he was trying to protest as hard as he could without actually _sounding_ like it. "See, in a comic book the heroes don't get killed. I mean, okay, they killed Superman that time, but it was only temporary."

"Can we deal with reality here?" Jake demanded, again sounding about as annoyed as Tommy felt. "We have business to discuss."

"That sounds good to me," he said, sweeping his gaze over the rest of his fellow Animorphs.

There were times that Tommy could let himself forget that these kids were three years younger than him; this wasn't one of those times.

Eventually, after a bit more messing around, Rachel brought up the idea of going back into the Chapman house so that she could try finding out where the Yeerks' Kandrona – something that was apparently used to beam energy or nutrients into the Yeerks' underground strongholds and the Pools that they seemed to live in normally – was. That is, if anything like _that_ even came up during the course of their conversation.

Sure, something to do with the Kandrona's guards _had_ come up during the course of the last conversation that she'd managed to overhear, but that probably wasn't going to happen a second time.


	17. The Visitor (6)

He and Jake had talked about what kind of trouble Rachel might have run into while she was inside the Chapman house, and their desire to help her with whatever it was that she'd ended up facing, and had ultimately decided that Jake would be the one to go with her in a flee morph, and he would look after the other Animorphs once Jake had made contact with him. Cassie and Tobias had been the first to bring up the possibility that Rachel might have actually been afraid of what had happened to her while she'd been in there, and was going back inside because she wanted to conquer her fear.

And, while Tommy _could_ respect wanting to overcome fear like that, it was too dangerous considering the odds against them right now.

Still, the four of them made more concrete plans for what they were going to do when Rachel went back into the Chapman house, and then left to go their separate ways until the next time they met.


	18. The Visitor (7)

When they all met up the next time, there was the promise of a storm pressing down on them as they all stood outside the Chapman house. Watching as Cassie and Rachel talked, he tried not to focus on the fact that Jake was a flee, crawling around somewhere on her right hand. He'd end up staring at her hand if he let himself think about that, and he might have ended up giving away the plans that they'd made to keep an eye on Rachel while she was inside the Chapman house.

Once it started raining, Rachel ran for the inside of the Chapman house; Tommy could only hope that she'd be able to come out of it all all right, her and Jake, since they were going in together.

After what felt like an eternity of waiting, Chapman himself came stomping out of the house, a pet carrier swinging from his hand; Tommy had the worst feeling that he knew just who was inside that carrier.

(Tommy, it's time to go,) Tobias said, though he'd started morphing into his bald eagle body just before Tobias had finished speaking.

Taking off from the tree he'd climbed as he'd been morphing, at least until his arms had started turning into wings and he'd been stuck in place waiting for the last of the changes to finish, Tommy followed Tobias as the pair of them met up with the other Animorphs – except for Jake and Rachel, of course – in the sky. Turning to watch as Chapman pulled his car out of his driveway, Tommy turned along with his fellow Animorphs to follow him. In a weird way, he was almost _expecting_ it when Chapman – or at least the Yeerk in control of him – turning and drove into the abandoned construction site.

That place… as though it needed any _more_ bad memories associated with it.

Splitting off from Tobias, who was going to have to stay close enough to _both_ of their groups to keep them all in contact with at least Jake while everything was going on, Tommy fell in with Marco and Cassie as the three of them flew out to the edges of the construction site. Even in the last, fading light of dusk, he could see the forms of the construction equipment that had been left behind to rust.

He only hoped some of them actually _worked_ , or this would all end up being for nothing.

The three of them landed and demorphed, making their way toward the closest of the vehicles: a squat, imposing bulldozer that looked like it had seen better days.

"You sure you know how to handle this?" he asked, as he and Marco climbed into the cab.

"We'll find out," Marco said, smirking back at him.

 _Great,_ he mused; as if he needed _more_ bad memories of this place.


	19. The Visitor (8)

When Tobias had called him, telling him that Jake was locked in battle with Visser Three and could use the extra help, Tommy quickly morphed into his lion form and leaped out from behind a broken, tumbled wall that he'd used for shelter while he'd demorphed from the barn owl he'd acquired back at Cassie's barn the last time he and the rest of the Animorphs had been there.

(Tommy, get Rachel out of here!)

(Right!)

Picking up Rachel as gently as he could, considering their respective shapes, Tommy ran as Jake turned back to attack. The sounds of running Hork-Bajir and Taxxons, followed quickly by Jake's roaring, gave Tommy a brief moment of relief. Right up until he started hearing the sounds of thundering footfalls from behind him.

(Andalite!) Visser Three shouted, stomping determinedly towards them in another giant, monstrous alien morphs. (You won't get away so easily.)

(Tommy, I really need to demorph soon,) Rachel said, as Tommy ran as fast as he could away from Visser Three and the giant, three-legged, rock-skinned alien that he'd morphed into.

(All right, I'll see if I can distract him,) he said, as he let Rachel down so she could get into one of the smaller, more secluded areas within the scattered debris of the construction site.

Even as he said that, Tommy was fully aware that he wasn't going to be able to do anything but _distract_ Visser Three; his lion's claws would never be able to penetrate that creature's rocky hide, the sheer size difference would all but _ensure_ that Visser Three would crush him if he slipped up. Still, if the only thing he _could_ do was distract Visser Three, he'd make sure that Rachel would have the time she needed to demorph and get to safely.

No matter _what_ ended up happening to him in the process.


	20. The Visitor (9)

When the six of them were all able to meet up again, Tommy finally allowed himself to relax. Not being able to do anything more than keep an eye out for his fellow Animorphs when they were all in school together, since he and they weren't really in the same social groups and he agreed with Jake about trying to keep as much suspicion as they could from falling on them, since there was no way of knowing how many of them could be Yeerk-enslaved as well. Mr. Chapman probably wasn't the only one.

In light of all that, knowing that Rachel _hadn't_ been trapped in the cat morph she'd used to escape from Visser Three after their second mission to spy on Mr. Chapman had gone so wrong was probably the best he could hope for.

"How _is_ Melissa?" Cassie asked, bringing his attention back to the conversation they'd been having.

"I left her a note," Rachel said, going on to tell them what she'd put in the letter; it turned out to be a message of support for Melissa, something that Tommy found he could only approve of. "I know it's bad for security, Jake. And Marco, I know it's sentimental," she continued, giving the aforementioned boy an annoyed look. "But I don't care. Chapman gave up _everything_ to save his daughter from being made into a host. I couldn't just do nothing."

(I think that could help,) he said, his tail twitching slightly back and forth; he couldn't quite stop wondering if _his_ parents had been made into Yeerk hosts, or if they were just generally indifferent. (She'll probably feel better to know at least _someone_ cares about her, at least if she's doing as bad as you said she was.)

"It's all right, maybe it _will_ help," Jake allowed, nodding.

"Well, we destroyed one of the Yeerks' Bug Fighters, made Visser Three nervous, and-"

"And we came out alive," Marco said, cutting into Rachel's speech before she could really go anywhere.

(Yeah, that's important, too,) he said, as Cassie reached down to pet his head; Tommy found himself purring softly.

"Yeah, that's one of the most important things," Jake agreed, grinning.

"Next time, we'll-"

" _Next_ time?!" Marco demanded, his tone thick with mock horror.

(There _will_ be a next time,) Tobias said, his tone cold and serious where the rest of theirs had carried at least _some_ amusement. (There will be a next time until the Andalites return.)

(Yeah,) he said, flexing his claws as he felt the same determination that he'd heard in Tobias' silent voice settling over him, in turn. (There will be.)


End file.
